


ten year reunions were never this hard

by yuletide_archivist



Category: American Idol RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-21
Updated: 2008-12-21
Packaged: 2018-01-25 01:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1625024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Story by jennifer</p><p>Coming back to Idol is like a high school reunion. complete with exes you still talk to and the people you don't want to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ten year reunions were never this hard

**Author's Note:**

> Written for ceares

 

 

David had been honestly surprised when he'd answered his cell phone and Simon Cowell was on the other end of the line. He hadn't heard from the Brit in years; in fact the last time he'd really talked to Simon had been when David had gone back for the season 8 finale.

"David, hello." David didn't know many people with foreign accents, so it didn't take him long to place the voice.

"Um, Simon, hey. What going on?" David took two beers out of the fridge, handing one to Neal as the other musician gave Dave a Look.

"You might have heard the news already, but we're planning on celebrating the tenth anniversary of Idol with a special compilation disc as well as live performances on the night of the finale. You are free right?" David knew Simon wasn't really asking. It had probably been cleared already with both Andrea, his publicist, and Trent, his manager. Simon's call was more a courtesy than anything.

"Yeah, sure. Wouldn't mind seeing Kelly again." David smiled. Neal was doing kissy-face in the background. Cook put up his middle finger.

"Great. Andrea already has all the information. We'll see you next month." Cowell never said goodbye when he hung up the phone.

"So what hoop do the vultures want you to jump through?" Neal asked as David busied himself with opening his beer.

David shrugged. "Want me to participate in the tenth anniversary of Idol." Cook took a drink from his beer. "Now can we go finish the bridge to Vulnerable' before I go completely insane?"

"Yes master." Neal smirked. Cook shoved him in the shoulder before walking out of the kitchen, beer in hand and chord progressions dancing around in his head.

*~*~*

'A Decade of Idols' they were calling it. Ten years of Idol celebrated by bringing together the best of the last nine years just before they crowned the tenth American Idol. A live show just for the celebration was planned, and the winner of the tenth season would have their coronation song as a bonus track to the disc that would come out the week after.

David didn't know who was invited to festivities, if you could call them that, but he had a pretty good idea. Kelly would be there, and so would Carrie, Ryan, Chris and Jordin. Cook knew that David Archuletta was probably going to be involved, since the younger David was the only other success story to come out of Idol that hadn't outright won the competition that season— but Cook didn't think about the younger David too much. It still hurt when he thought about how crushed Archie had looked the last time Cook had seen him, and the reason for that look Cook placed squarely on his own shoulders.

The one thing David remembered the most about American Idol was that it had always been barely controlled chaos. Between laying down vocals for the next show, prqcticing for the live show, and rehearsing those group numbers, none of the contestants knew if they were coming or going. The PAs knew a little bit better, but it was still chaotic.

So when David stepped into 19E's studios, he thought he knew what to expect. What he got was a totally different matter.

The halls were actually quiet for once. Sure there were some people roaming the halls, but for what David remembered, the studio he was presently in didn't match the one in his memories at all.

"David!" Cook had a smile on his face when he saw Kelly Clarkson running down the hall.

"Hey girl." Kelly wrapped David up in a hug that almost crushed his lungs.

"So they conned you into doing this too huh?" David still got caught dumbstruck by Kelly's smile.

"Of course. It wouldn't look right if I didn't come and do whatever Idol asked of me. After all, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here." David had his own smile on his face as Kelly parroted the same lines back to him. "Enough with that crap. So who's here?"

"Carrie is laying down vocals, Ryan is doing instrumental, and I just heard from Katherine, she got in from LAX and is gonna be here whenever she can get out of that mess." One of the unspoken rules of Idol had become that everyone who had made it to the final two had everyone else's number. Kelly talked to them a lot more than David ever did.

"McPhee got roped into this?"

Kelly nodded her head. "Had to get someone besides Chris from Five." She shrugged. "You also might want to avoid the conference room for now." She said softly.

"Why?" Cook knew what Kelly was going to say before she even opened her mouth.

"Archuletta is in there." David did his own version of parroting with Kelly this time. Kelly playfully shoved him in the shoulder. "Seriously Dave."

Cook had been wondering about whether or not the producers would have him and Archie do some kind of duet again. No other Final Two pairing had the mutual success of him and Archuletta. And with the producers tendency to play up the big brother/little brother angle with the two of them, David knew it was a foregone conclusion that the two of them were going to at least run into each other, if not have to lay down vocals together. "I can't avoid him the whole time Kel, it'd be kinda tough to do that."

Kelly kissed his cheek, already knowing David's first destination. "Just be careful."

"And where are you going?" David asked Kelly.

"Jen and I are going out to lunch before she comes to the studio to start he part of the crazy adventure."

"They got her to do this too? But she—" David turned around to watch Kelly backpedal out of the studio.

"Wouldn't be as successful if it wasn't for Idol." Kelly smirked as she reached the entryway doors. She bumped the push bar with her back before turning around and walking out the door. David shook his head and let out a short laugh before making his way towards the conference room.

*~*~*

"So we were hoping you'd sing 'Inside My Mind', and then you and Cook would do a remixed duet of 'Hero'." Archie was listening to what the producer was telling him, but he wasn't really hearing it, until he had heard Cook's name.

"Cook?" Archie perked up a little bit.

"Yeah. David is supposed to be here in a few minutes in fact. I'm sure you haven't seen him in a while, so we'll let you guys talk before we start doing the new masters for 'Hero'."

"G— great. That'll be great." David stuttered out.

"We'll be going over to the main stage on Thursday. Ana-Maria and Lucas will join up with everyone on Friday so we can incorporate their parts into the show." Archie was kind of hoping Ana-Maria was going to win.

The knock on the door interrupted the producer from giving Archie the rest of the plan for the week. "That's probably Cook."

Archie bolted up from his chair and walked over to the closed door. "We're done here, right?" Archie vaguely heard his manager Teresa say to the producer. His dad was back home in Murray waiting for Claudia to give birth to David's second nephew.

Archie turned the knob and was about open the door when the choice was taken from him. "Cook—"

"H— hey Archie. Long time no see huh?" Cook slightly upturned the corners of his mouth into a small smile.

"Yeah, yeah." Archie babbled, looking straight into Cook's eyes.

"David! Great, you're here." The producer broke the moment between the two of them. "You guys are in studio 4." 

"After you Arch." David noticed that Cook's smirk didn't reach his eyes. David had always thought that Cook's eyes were his best feature. You could see almost anything in them.

Archie had a sick feeling deep in his gut that this was going to be one heck of a week.

*~*~*

"Stop, stop. That doesn't work." Archie took the studio headphones off his head and let them rest around his neck.

"What?" Cook was honestly surprised when Archie stopped singing.

"That whole lyric. It doesn't work when I put it up against yours." Archie said again as he stepped out of the recording booth and into the sound room.

"Since when did you get so smart?" Cook smiled again. And again Archie noticed it didn't reach his eyes at all.

"Play it back please?" Archie asked the studio tech at the mixing board. The tech nodded his head as he rewound the track. Archie's voice started echoing in the booth. "Now start singing your part." Archie looked at Cook.

Cook started singing along softly, paying attention to the melody. Archie noticed Cook's eyes wandered everywhere, but he never looked David in the eye. When they got to the section of the song Archie had stopped at, David noticed Cook's eyes widen slightly. "I'll be damned. Little Archie knows what he's doing in the booth." When the top ten went into the booth to record songs for that week to be released on iTunes, everyone had some kind of idea what they were doing in the booth— except for Archie. Even Rami had picked up what to do in the recording sessions, and she'd had just as much experience going in as Archie.

"I had good teachers." Archie blushed a little. Cook continued to avoid eye contact.

"Well then what do you think we should do?" Cook asked him, genuinely curious, looking at a point just beyond Archie's shoulder.

"I think you've got to come a little bit higher. I can't go as high as you can, so you're going to have to match me I think."

Cook nodded his head. "That just might work." Archie noticed that Cook had to stop himself from ruffling Archie's hair in affection.

Archie sighed. If Cook didn't say anything, then David knew he was going to have to. The only problem was where to start.

*~*~*

"Have I mentioned I'm screwed?" Carrie paused mid-noodle slurp when she heard Cook's voice. She rolled her eyes at Kelly and the Texan giggled.

Kelly put down her Kung-Pow Chicken as she looked at David. "Not in the last 24 hours, no. I told you this was going to happen." She said as David sat down with the two girls and opened up his own container of Beef Lo Mein. "I don't even know why you're still going on like this."

"Oh yeah, cause that's going to be the easiest conversation to have. 'Oh Arch, I'm sorry you saw me going down on my now ex at Michael and Carly's wedding two years ago. I'd much rather be going down on you instead. So what do you think about the bridge for the second chorus anyway?' One doesn't exactly go with the other Kel."

Carrie pointed her chopsticks at David. "It does if you let it. Don't hold back. Allow for the small possibility that Archie isn't going to burn you at the stake. He hasn't yet." She shrugged.

"Carrie's got a point." Kelly said. "Do you really want to go on national TV, sing a duet with him, and do whatever other cutesy things Idol wants the two of you to do together with this hanging between you?"

"No." David actually whined.

"Talk to him then." Kelly stated as she stole a piece of David's chicken.

*~*~*

"— yeah Jayce, I can probably do it then. Once I don't have to do Idol anymore, I can come back into the studio full time." Cook was relaxing in the studio, playing around with his guitar when he heard Archie opening the door to the studio, finishing up a call on his cell. "See you then."

"You started recording your third album yet?" Cook's voice made Archie jump.

"Geez Cook, you scared me." Archie saw Cook staring down at his guitar strings. "Yeah, I'm going into the studio once I'm done here."

"Working with Chasez again?" Archie could swear there was a bit of jealousy in Cook's voice.

Archie shrugged, "We work well together." Archie looked over at Cook. "What about you? How's it coming along?"

Cook shrugged as well, "Okay. I mean there's this one song that I really want to be on the album, but I just can't get it to sound right, ya know? I've done it about a dozen different ways, drove Neal _and_ Andy insane trying to figure out what's wrong with it, but I just can't figure it out"

Archie knew an olive branch when he saw one, even if Cook didn't mean for it to be. "Can I hear it? Maybe you need someone who hasn't been listening to it non-stop to tell you what's wrong."

Cook bit his lip, a habit Archie knew Cook only did when he was truly nervous. Archie was about to get up and go back into the booth, figuring Cook didn't want him to listen to the song, when Cook sat up straight and resituated his guitar, setting up the first chord of the song.

"I've been sitting here, inside this cold and empty room—"

*~*~*

"I didn't think that would _ever_ end." Ryan groaned. "You'd think that remixing a song I sang about three dozen times would be easier, not harder."

Kelly's high laugh rang through the empty halls of 19E's studio. Even though Kelly had finished laying down the masters for her track hours before, she stayed behind so her and Ryan could go to dinner. "You might have won the eighth season of the toughest singing competition on the planet Mr. Johnson, but that doesn't mean any of this gets easier." Kelly heard faint chords coming from the studio the two Davids were supposed to have vacated hours before. "Ooh. Maybe the Davids want to come to dinner with us."

"Kels, maybe—" Ryan tried to hold Kelly back, but the Texan was at the studio door before he could stop her.

Kelly peeked through the glass window on the door, standing on her tiptoes. Inside she saw both Davids, heads bent together as Cook scribbled something on a sheet of paper and Archie erased it and scribbled something else. She smiled as Cook strummed something quickly on his guitar, seeing the brief smile on his face as something in the chord seemed to satisfy him.

She leaned back onto her heels, a smile on her face. She turned to Ryan and smiled, "We'll leave them alone. For what that boy puts me through, he can get his own damned dinner."

"That's what I like to hear Ms. Clarkson." Ryan said as he put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a kiss.

*~*~*

"That sounds really really good Cook. I don't think I could ever make something that good." Archie babbled. The two of them had lost track of time as they broke down Vulnerable, literally going back to the beginning for the second chorus and starting it from scratch. But Cook seemed to be genuinely pleased with the song now, and was sure he could convince management to put 'Vulnerable' on the album, maybe even make it the first single if he could play his cards right. 

"Arch, don't say that. I'm sure you'll come out with something just as spectacular." Cook said as he ruffled Archie's hair. Cook had gone back to his old habits with Archie, ruffling his hair, joking around, and being the guy Archie remembered before he caught Cook in that linen closet.

Archie yawned. "What time is it?"

Cook looked over at the wall clock. "Wow, eleven."

"Really?" Archie's stomach grumbled in an echoing response. "I guess we did work through dinner."

"Wanna go out for dinner? Thai sound good?" Cook asked.

Archie nodded his head eagerly, a big grin on his face. "Thai sounds excellent."

*~*~*

Archie gave the waiter his order, giving Cook a glance as the older David took a sip of his iced tea. He didn't know what had changed while Cook had gone to lunch, but Archie wasn't above looking a gift horse in the mouth.

The two of them talked about small stuff waiting for their food, both of them carefully avoiding talking about the event that had put the wedge between them in the first place. But Archie knew that while Cook might have been the one to reach out his hand, he was the one that had to make it right. He waited until after they had eaten most of their entré before asking the question that he knew was either going to end their friendship all together, or bring it to a whole other level that he hoped was going to be the actual outcome once the night was over. "Can I ask you something?" Archie said softly, barely any louder than their utensils scraping across the plates.

Cook bit his lip again. "Is this about what I think it's about?"

"Um, unless it's about me, you and a linen closet, then I don't know?" Archie questioned.

"You, me, my ex, and a linen closet. That actually sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke." Cook tried to laugh, even though his throat felt like it was closing up.

"Your ex?" Archie couldn't help but let a bit of hopefulness slip into his tone.

"We broke up like a week later. But that's not a conversation for here. Or ever actually." Cook was now playing with the food still left on his plate.

Archie reached over and put his hand over Cook's. "I think I'm ready for the check. How about you?"

Cook put his hand up to signal the waiter.

*~*~*

The drive over to Archie's apartment was eerily silent. Cook nixed going to his place immediately since Neal was still there and there was no way Cook was having this conversation with the other musician anywhere within listening distance.

The only words exchanged in the car were the directions Archie gave the older David as they drove to his place. To Cook, the ride was over way too quickly.

Immediately upon opening the door to his place, Archie walked over to the kitchen, getting two iced teas out of the fridge. "Don't have anything stronger." He shrugged.

"That's okay Arch." Cook sat down on the sofa, staring straight at the floor, not wanting to look Archie in the eye. "Commence with the firing squad."

"Cook." Archie whined. He sat down on the loveseat next to the sofa, making sure that his knee touched Cook's. "All I want to know is why."

Cook looked sideways at Archie. "Why?"

Archie nodded his head. "You were the one that cut off contact, not me."

And Cook'd be damned if Carly hadn't laced it into him for that one, once upon a time. "You."

"Me?" Archie squeaked. Cook would have laughed if the moment wasn't so serious.

"You literally drive me crazy Archuletta." Cook took a sip of the iced tea to try and calm himself down before his throat closed up completely. "The David Archuletta I first met was this shy little Mormon from Utah who didn't know how to curse, was alarmingly nice to everyone he met, and in all the crazy that was Idol, you never lost yourself. Not once."

"And then the tour happened, we were both too busy promoting our albums— it felt like I blinked and all of a sudden there you were, Archie, all grown up. I don't know how many times I wanted to jump you, even though Kim was standing right next to me."

"I'd wondered why you two seemed to just fizzle away. You really did like her." Archie said as he took a sip of his own iced tea.

Cook nodded. "I did. But Kim saw the writing on the wall, way before I even had to ask her."

"But I thought—, I mean you had never mentioned—"

"That I liked guys? Ask Neal some time what happened with him and I had too much to drink the night before back when I was in MWK. I never did find my lucky green boxers." Cook barked out a laugh. "And with you around, I never wanted to bring it up."

"Until you showed up to Carly and Michael's wedding with Brent." Archie said.

Cook nodded. "I thought him and I were going to work. He wasn't you, but I thought we were pretty darned good together."

"And I then I found you in what I thought was the bathroom—"

"Of all the times for you pull the classic 'Can't find the bathroom' joke, you pick that one."

"Well I didn't exactly plan that one." Archie said hotly.

Cook smiled very briefly, but the corners of his mouth downturned just as quick. "And then you left, slamming the door closed, leaving the wedding—"

"Not returning your phone calls." Archie finished for him.

Cook nodded. "I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with me. That I was dirty or something. So I stopped trying."

"Geez Cook. Why would I ever think that?" Cook just shrugged. "I might be Mormon, but I'm not _stupid_. That fact that you were doing _that_ with some— some guy wasn't even why I left so suddenly. It was because I wanted that to be _me_ you idiot." Archie exclaimed.

"You wanted" Cook was at a loss for words.

"Yes, me." Archie stressed, putting down his iced tea and moving over to sit on the couch. "It took me a few months away from you to realize that I didn't love you like a brother, I genuinely love _you_." Archie poked him in the shoulder. "With your horrible jokes, and your beautiful voice, and your ugly elf shoes, and your knack for knowing just the right word when most people never do. _You_." Archie stressed again.

"So I'm an idiot huh?" Cook very slowly put down his drink, turning around to face Archie.

"A big one." Archie confirmed.

"So can this big idiot kiss you?" Cook asked softly, putting his hand on Archie's cheek.

"Of cour—" The rest of Archie's statement was swallowed up by one of the best kisses he'd ever had. When Cook did pull away, Archie felt like it had been over far too quickly. "You can do that again if you want." Archie whispered against Cook's lips as the two of them sat on the sofa, foreheads touching.

"Can I do it more than once?"

Archie giggled before he nodded, as Cook swooped in for another kiss. 

 


End file.
